E 680 
J.P58 
Copy 1 



SPEECH 



MAeTOR BEN. M. PIATT, 



OF COVINGTON, KY., 



DELIVKRF.n AT 



HOPKINS' HALL, CINCINNATI, 



FRIDAY EVEJ^mO, JULY 28, 187 G. 



CI N CIN N ATI: 
ROBERT CLARKE & CO., PRINTERS. 

1876. 



SPEEC H 



MAJOK BEN. M. PIATT, 



OF COVINGTON, KY., 



DELIVERED AT 



HOPKINS' HALL, CmCINNATI, 



FRIDAY EVEMIJ^G, JULY 28, 1876. 



CINCIN N ATI: 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO., PRINTERS. 

187G. 



\r6t 









31r. Chairman and Gentlemen : 

I assure }on it is with no small degree of pride and 
pleasure that I come before you this evening to take a 
part, however humble, in this meeting. I am thankful for 
the compliment of being invited to be present upon this oc- 
casion, and to address you. I am happy to stand upon the 
same platform with one whom I honor so much as I do 
Judge Johnston, and to unite my voice with his in advoca- 
ting the claims for the Presidency of the United States of 
one so richly deserving of such a distinction as your fellow- 
citizen and present Executive, 

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES ; 

the man who declared, when the rebellion broke out, that 
he would rather go into the army and die, or get killed, 
than to take no part in the struggle ; the man who said 
that a man who a\ ould come home from his place in the 
field to canvass for a seat in Congress, ought to be scalped; 
the man who, when asked, after he was elected, when he was 
going to Washington, answered that he never intended to 
go to Washington until he could go through Richmond ; the 
man who, wherever placed by the people of tliis country, 
has discharged every single duty faithtully and well; the man 
whose courage and integrity are alike unquestioned-, and 
whose character the more it is examined becomes the 
brighter. This, I say, is the man whom I am jiroud to be 
here to praise. This is the man for whom I am glad to 
raise my voice as a Kentnckian, and for whom I am here 
to assure you that the solid Ke[>nblican vote of Kentucky 
will be cast on the 7th day of next Fovember, when the 
free, liberty-loving citizens of that grand old common- 



[4] 

wealth go to the polls to exercise the right of suffrage. We 
are not so sanguine as to expect to carry the state, but we 
are determined to see to it that the whole vote shall be 
cast. The time is, in my opinion, not very far distant when 
a groat and grand revolution will be worked in Kentucky 
politics, and that, ere many more elections shall take place, 
the state will be Republican. There is no reason why she 
sliould not be, and I for one intend to do all in my power, 
little though it be, to accomplish that object. In every 
general canvass the Democratic majority is decreased, and 
of course it is only a question of time. My belief is that 
Mr. Bristow would have carried the state, but of course 
that would have been because the people there were so 
warmly attached to him personally, and he would have re- 
ceived tliousands of Democratic votes that will now be 
polled for Tilden and Hendricks. 

My belief is that the welfare of this country — -its con- 
tinnance as a tiation — depends upon the success of the Re- 
publican party in the present canvass. The time is just 
coming when the many obstacles that have stood in our 
way will be no longer capable of hindering the grand work 
destined to be done by us; and under auspices such as are 
vouchsafed to us at this important juncture, in the excellent 
ticket we have placed in the field, there is nothing to pre- 
vent our party from doing its whole duty, and proving 
conclusively to .all the nations of the earth the soundness 
of the theory of self-government, and our ability to per- 
l)etuate a republic. We must not lose sight, as we go 
along, of the mighty work of the Republican party, and 
the trials through which it was compelled to pass for so 
many years — long, long, weary years of warfare and dis- 
Boiirtion. The Republican party was born to have trouble 
worthy its great mission. On the 7th day of November, 
ISOO, the very next day after the election of the lamented 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ^ 

tlic Palmetto iJug was unfurled in Charleston harbor; 
three days jiitt-rward, in the South (Carolina legislature, 
secession was proposed ; on the 11th of the same month 



[5] 

Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, resio^ned ; and in 
seven days from that time Georgia appropriated a million 
of dollars to arm the state against the Federal govern- 
ment; on the 1st day of December, 1860, an immense 
secession meeting was held in the city of Memphis, Ten- 
nessee, and in less than ten days Howell Cobb resigned his 
position as Secretary of the Treasury ; on the 14th of the 
same month James Buchanan opposed reinforcing Fort 
Moultrie; next day General Cass resigned his position as 
Secretary of State ; and within a week South Carolina 
adopted the ordinance of secession. On the 25th of the 
same mouth the members of Congress from South Carolina 
resigned their seats ; on the 27th of the same month the 
revenue cutter William Aiken surrendered to the author- 
ities of South Carolina. The next day the same authorities 
took Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie; and the day after 
John B. Floyd resigned his position as Secretary of War. 
On the 2d day of January, 1861, Governor Ellis, of North 
Carolina, took possession of Fort Macon ; two days from 
that time Governor Moore, of Alabama, seized upon Fort 
Morgan and the United States arsenal at Mobile; and on 
the 8th of the same month Jacob Thompson resigned his 
position as Secretary of the Interior. Between the 9th 
day of the same month and the first day of February, Ala- 
bama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all passed 
ordinances of secession ; the Florida troops took possession 
of the navy -yard at Pensacola ; Virginia appropriated a 
million of dollars to be used by the state against the gen- 
eral government; Jefferson Davis resigned his seat in the 
Senate ; and the United States arsenal at Augusta, Georgia, 
was seized. 

On the 1st day of February, 1861, the mint and cus- 
tom house at New Orleans were seized by the authorities of 
Louisiana; and on the 4th of the same month, a Southern 
Confederacy was formed at Montgomery, Alabama. Five 
days thereafter Jefferson Davis was elected President of the 
Southern Confederacy ; and in ten days from that time 
Fort Kearney, Kansas, was seized by the Confederates. 

On the 5th day of March, 1861— the day after the inau- 



fTuration of Mr. Lincoln — Beauregard took command at 
Charleston, S. C, and, on the 7th day of the same month, 
fitopped all communication between Fort Sumter and 
Charleston. In continuation of this most monstrous and 
wicked work, Fort Sumter was fired upon on the 12th ot 
April, 18(11, which, of course, demanded of Abraham Lin- 
coln immediate action ; and therefore, on the 15th of 
the same month, he issued his proclamation for the seventy- 
five thousand three-months men. It will be seen that nearly 
all of the acts of insubordination and disobedience to the 
laws of the country that I have named 

WERE FULLY DEVELOPED 

before Mr. Lincoln had ever done, or had even had an op- 
portunity of doing, a single official act in his position as 
President of the United States. He had been fairly elected ; 
was known throughout the entire country as an upright, 
honest, patriotic man, with no intention to do anything but 
his duty. But the Democratic party would not wait to see 
what kind of an administration he would have. They 
were determined, simply because Mr. Lincoln luas elected, 

TO BREAK UP THE GOVERNMENT 

between the Gth of November, 1860, and the 4th of March, 
1861 ; and with an imbecile like Buchanan, who was as 
dishonest as he was weak, they came very near laying an 
immovable foundation for their terrible work. With all 
this staring us full in the face, and knowing the integrity 
of our party, in spite of the few bad men that have crept 
into it, are we ready to again give the government into the 
hands of the men, and those who sympathized with them, 
that made the record to which I have referred, and who, 
in the main, still stand by that record, and hold that they 
were right? 

The feartul and momentous day upon which the first 
hostile gun was fired, the work of the Republican party 
had its beginning, and it has continued in its work for 
this ccjuntry. 



[n 



AS A NATION, 

ever since ; and with the help of Almighty God, who 
holdeth the destinies of nations in the hollow of his hand, 
that party will live until its work is done, and its greatness 
fully manifested to the farthest reaches of the earth. It 
will live to see the day when the very same voices that are 
now raised in its denunciation and vilification will gladly 
and willingly accord to it the full measure of praise to 
which it is entitled. It will live to see the day when the 
men who are now so foolhardy and infatuated with the idea 
of Mr. Tilden's election, as to flaunt in the faces of Repub- 
licans the colors of the Southern Confederacy, will regret 
with shame their insane behavior. It will live to see the 
day when the widow of an officer of the Union army can 
unfurl in peace anywhere in this broad land the flag that 
was home upon the field of battle by her brave husband. 
It will live to see the day when 

NO MORE MURDERS 

will be committed upon men for loving their whole country, 
and going forth when it was assailed to do battle for its sal- 
vation. It will live to see the day, in spite of all the oppo- 
sition it has had, when it will be loved and respected the 
world over, as the grandest political party that ever existed. 
One of the most exciting, instructive, and remarkable 
conventions ever held in this country, closed its labors on 
the 16th day of last month, at Exposition Hall in this city. 
Before that convention, as candidates for the high and dig- 
nified office of President of the United States, were some 
of the most prominent men of this nation, honored and 
distinguished both at home and abroad for their valuable 
services, civil as well as military. The far-off State of 
Maine presented to that convention her renowned favorite, 
James G. Blaine, New York came with plumes and ban- 
ners in honor of her no less distinguished son, Roscoe Conk- 
ling. Indiana was there with her heroic, faithful, old war- 
horse, Oliver P. Morton. Pennsylvania came with her 
well-beloved son, Governor Hartranft. Kentucky came 



[8] 

with one no leps distiiignished, no less honored, no less able, 
no less beloved than any I have named, Benjamin H. Bris- 
tow. Ohio, too, was there, with the loyal, earnest, patriotic 
name of a great and good man, her present Governor, Ruth- 
erford B. Hayes, in honor of whose 

UNANIMOUS NOMINATION, 

and in pursuance of our determination to do all in our 
power to secure iiis election, we have gathered together this 
evening. 

It would be more than useless now to repeat or rehearse 
to you, who know them as well as we do in Kentucky, the 
hopes and fears of the different factions that made up that 
grand body of seven hundred and fifty-six men so carefully 
selected. Many a heart beat high and strong with hope at 
one time, that doubtless at other times, during the progress 
of that convention, became almost as still as death. We, 
of Kentucky, with an honest pride, of which none of us 
ever should or ever will feel ashamed, hoped till the very 
last moment that our brave, high-souled, patriotic candidate, 
the mere mention of whose name in the city of Cincinnati 
is a sigtial for the most deafening applause, would be the 
favored one ; but we were destined to defeat. But rest as- 
sured, my fellow-citizens, that we do not propose to allow 
our state pride, or any degree of individual favoritism, to 
cause us to falter now in supporting tlie wise selections 
made by that able and distinguished assemblage. This is a 
question that affects 

NOT KENTUCKY ALONE, 

but the Avhole country, and it is our bounden and sacred 
duty, and I assure you it is our determination, to stand as 
firmly and faithfully by Jlutherford B. Hayes as we would 
have stood by Benjamin II. Bristow, had he been the chosen 
one. Throughout the length and breadth of Kentucky, the 
republican party, with one accord, is ready to join with him 
cordially and cheerfully in saying that the convention has 
done "a grand woik." 

Time, as he moves forward in his never-ceasing march, 



[9] 

brings us countless lessons of experience, and these lessons 
are exceedingly valuable to us as we pass from youth to man- 
hood, and from manliood to old age. We learn too truly 
that man often proposes and God disposes. "VYe learn 
" many a time and oft " that what we ardently desire is 
never permitted to come into our possession. We learn 
that in the great events that are developed in the battle of 
life, in acting our part we must aim at the greatest good 
for the greatest number ; and especially in a Government 
like ours evei»y one should full}^ understand, and duly ap- 
preciate the fact that the will of the people — the will of the 
majority — must be the ruling element, and the minority 
must rest satisfied under the decision of the majority 
whenever fairness and honesty have been faithfully observed. 
Three hundred and eighty-four delegates were in favor 
of Rutherford B. Hayes for the high office of chief magis- 
trate of this nation. This alone were enough to demand 
and secure the unqualified acquiescence of every faithful 
Republican from one end of this land to the other ; but the 
obligation became all the more binding when the nomina- 
tion was declared unanimous. In Rutherford B. Hayes 
we find precisely the qualities that the country at this time 
so much 

NEEDS AND DEMANDS. 

He is a man able and honest; brave and chivalrous; in- 
telligent and accomplished; and if elected, which we con- 
fidently hope and believe he will be, he will surround him- 
self witii a cabinet of competent advisers who will conscien- 
tiously study the interests of the country, giving preference 
to no particular locality. And this, allow me to urge upon 
you, my friends and fellow-citizens, is an idea of no small 
importance. It is at this time imperatively and vitally 
necessary that our President shall be one who loves his 
whole country, and does not cherish in his heart any other 
sentiment than love for all his fellow-citizens. He must be 
a man who knows " no North, no South, no East, no West, 
nothing but the Union." My earnest belief is that a truer 
man to this Government never breathed the pure free air 
of our land ; and I ask the question here, as I propose to 



[10] 

ask it in my own state during the cominof canvass — In whom 
should we trust if not in sucli a man as the one w^e are now 
considering? No man can consistently be of the opinion 
that this country will not improve under the administration 
of such men as we have put in the field. The best evidence 
in the world to judge men by is their record, and if there 
lives a man with a better one than Mr. Hayes, or Mr. 
"Wheeler either, I would like to know who he is, and 
where he is from. The thing is simply impossible, for both 
of our candidates are without stain or blot. 

Now, so far as I am concerned — and I base my opinion 
upon the judgment of some of the very best and wisest 
men of the country — I feel perfectly confident that Hayes 
and Wheeler will be elected by a large majority ; and if 
they are elected I feel and know that the people of all 
parts of the country will have their interests in safe and 
reliable hands. Every department of the government will 
be carefully watched over, and administered with a consci- 
entious regard for the rights of all, be they high, or be 
they low, be they Republicans, or be they Democrats, and 
more than this no reasonable man can expect or desire. 

My fellow-citizens, to most of you I am a stranger, but 
my friends in Kentucky usually give me credit for being an 
earnest w^orker, and for being sincere, and I now state to 
you from this platform as earnestly as I ever uttered a 
word in my life, that it is my belief that this government 
never has been in better hands since its foundation than it 
will be in the four years following the 4th of next March, 
if we are so fortunate as to succeed in electing Rutherford 
B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler next November. The 
quiet, earnest manner in which these two men have lived 
and done their work, should teach us that it is not always 
necessary to make loud demonstrations, or create great ex- 
citement, to accomiilish grand undertakings. The shal- 
lower the stream the more it babbles; but we hnd from 
close observation that, as a rule, silent, earnest, continuous 
labor is the most eliectual, and must and will eventually 
succeed. It is just as true that the various acts of a man's 



[11 ] 

life make up his liistorj', as that drops make up the mis^hty 
ocean and sands make the sea-shore. 

WILLIAM A. WHEELER, 

our candidate for Vice-President, is now a member of the 
lower house of Congress, representing the nineteenth dis- 
trict of the State of New York, made up of Franklin and 
St. Lawrence counties. According to the last Congres- 
sional Director}', he "was born atMalone,New York, June 
30, 1819; received an academic education, and was for a 
year or more a student in the University of Vermont, in the 
class of 1842 ; studied and practiced law ; was District At- 
torney of Franklin county, New York, for several years; 
was a member of the New York House of Assembly in 
1850—51 ; was a member of the New Y^ork Senate, and 
President j^ro tern, of the same in 1858-59 ; was President 
of the New Y^ork Constitutional Convention in 1867—68 ; 
was elected to the thirty-seventh, fortj'-first, forty-second, 
and forty-third Congresses, and was re-elected to the forty- 
fourth Congress as a Republican, receiving 12,323 votes 
against 5,553 votes for Sawyer, Democrat." 

Surely, my friends, it is not very probable that a man of 
inferior abilities or dishonest principles would be selected 
to fill the important and responsible positions occupied by 
this gentleman in his own state, and, in addition to all these, 
sent five times to the Congress of the general Government. 
Please allow me to say, also, that I have it from Hon. W. 
E. Arthur, of my own city, who served in Congress with 
Mr. Wheeler, that he is a most excellent and able man. 

Evidence of so high a character is certainly conclusive 
as to his fitness and ability, and I think we are perfectly 
safe in voting for him, and should consider ourselves for- 
tunate in the selection of so good a man for the second 
place on our ticket. 

Now I will not detain you very much longer ; I wish to 
say a few words, however, in conclusion, and I must ask 
you to allow me to repeat my belief that we can and will 
succeed in this race, with the admirable ticket we have 
selected. It has elements in it of too high an order for 



[12] 

failure. I must ask you also to indulge me for a few mo- 
ments with regard to the nominations made at St. Louis 
on the 29lh of last month. 

In spite of all the firing of guns and flourish of trumpets, 
it is clearly evident to me that the Democratic party is 
very much dissatisfied with the nomination of Tilden, and 
all their assertions as to confidence ot success are engen- 
dered hy their great desire, and are only verifications of 
the old adage, that " a drowning man will catch at a 
straw." 

The St. Louis platform accepts the results of the war, and 
at the same time places in nomination for the highest office 
in the gift of the people a man who, from the beginning, 
was op};osed to the war for the Union ; and, in 1864, " de- 
manded a cessation of hostilities, and a compromise with 
the rebels in arms;" and of whom the Enquirer said, not 
long before the convention, that his surroundings were bad? 
and, if elected, he would take to the White House the 
worst set of political jobbers and thieves ever seen in Wash- 
ington. And yet that paper is now advocating his election 
over Hayes, a man against whom the tongue of slander 
would wither and become powerless. 

The party now, after all its wild, extravagant, and un- 
holy work in the past, comes up from all sides howling and 
shouting for reform. They repeat it over and over again 
in the St. Louis platform. They seem to think reform can 
come from no party but the Democratic party. Well, for 
the sake of peace, let us admit very candidly that the Dem- 
ocratic party needs reform. When we reflect upon the cor- 
rupt practices that elected James K. Polk over Henry 
Clay; the parenthetical administration of Franklin Pierce; 
and the weak, disgraceful course pursued by his most im- 
becile successor, James Buchanan, ending in an impover- 
ished treasury, emptied by dishonest officials, we may well 
ask if impudence could much lurthergo. l!Tearly all the 
deplorable evils that are upon us to-day have been brought 
about by the bad faith and bad behavior of the Democratic 
party. They have done everything in their power to break 
up and forever destroy the government, and failing in that 



[ 13 J 

terrible hazard, they have done every thing, since the close 
of the war, that they could possibly conceive of to hinder 
the Republican party from doing its duty. Such conduct 
is worse than shameful, and merits the i)rompt and stern 
rebuke of all good men. 

If the Democratic party, in 1860, when Abrahani Lincoln 
was honestly and fairly elected, had acquiesced in that 
election, as all honest and law-abiding men should have 
done, where would be the 

ENORMOUS PUBLIC DEBT 

of to-dny ? If they had acquiesced in that election, in- 
stead of unfurling the Palmetto flag; instead of appropri- 
ating millions of dollars to fight against their country ; 
instead of passing ordinances of secession ; instead of 
firing upon Fort Sumter; instead of seizing government 
arsenals, custom-houses, and military posts, where, in all 
probability, would be to-day most of the brave mea who 

NOW SLEEP IN DEATH, 

the victims of the late war? These are solemn questions, 
and I put them most earnestly to every Democrat wdio is 
ready to abuse the Republican partj^ and blame it for not 
doing more than it has done. I have no desire to harrow 
up the feelings of any one. I am anxious and willing for 
" the dead past to bury its dead ;" but I am not willing to 
have my fences torn down, and my growing crops de- 
stroyed, and then be abused, by the party that has injured 
me, for not having an abundant harvest. 

Now, gentlemen, Rutherford B. Hayes has been a law- 
yer, twice a member of Congress, and three times governor 
of this, the third in rank of the states composing this na- 
tion ; and I have this to say for him, that never, in all the 
time from the day when he first took his place among men 
and entered upon the responsibilities of life, down to this 
very moment, has a sobriquet so odious as 

" SLIPPERY SAM " 

attached to him. It would be simply iiupossible for such a 



[14] 

thing to happen. His walk through life has been too up- 
right, and his soul too great for him ever to stoop to any- 
thing that would fasten upon him a name so obnoxious, so 
disgraceful. There is no danger of our ever hearing or 
seeing in print snch an {ippeliatiou as "Slippery Ruther- 
ford " or "Slippery Hayes." The term " slippery" can not 
apply to him in any sense of the word. It would find no 
lodgment anywhere. It could not be made to stick. 
Nothing can ever find itself at home with him except 
honor and truth, and a firm determination to perform 
every dutj' faithfully, without false pride and without vain 
show. 

Regarding the Democratic ticket, the truth is, I do not 
think they could have done much better or much worse. 
I mean by this, better for us, or worse for themselves. As 
for Mr. Hendricks, he is certainly a strange candidate to 
put forward for the suffrages of Union men. He was in 
the prime and vigor of a splendid manhood when the re- 
bellion burst upon us ; but, instead of going to Governor 
Morton, as General Grant did to Governor Yates, and 
offering his services to his country, he made up a record of 
which I can say most truthfully every good and patriotic 
man in this nation should feel ashamed. I think, however, 
with all his faults and failings, he is a better man than Til- 
den, and that he ought to have had the first place or none ; 
audit now remains to be seen what kind of a vote he can 
poll, even in Indiana, second upon a ticket upon which 
he should have been first — a ticket headed by " Slippery 
Sam," the " wildcat banker" and reformer! 

But to conclude. I am far more than anxious for suc- 
cess, and signal success, too, in this most important canvass 
— the most important since the foundation of the govern- 
ment; and I hope from the bottom of my heart that every 
Republican in this land will open his eyes to the necessities 
of the hour — will stand firm to the true political faith of 
his country; and, with success, we will again see pros- 
perity, happiness, and contentment, from one extreme to 
the other of our beloved Union — second to none on the 
face of the globe. 



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